The present invention relates to the combination of powered equipment with a tractor and trailer and more particularly relates to mountings for supporting such equipment on tractor-trailer combinations.
Powered equipment is often used together with a tractor and trailer for working on and/or loading material for transport by the trailer or for working on material being transported in the trailer. This equipment may be powered from the tractor PTO or it may include its own power source such as a gasoline engine, for example. Examples of such equipment are powered vacuums, chippers, log splitters and portable generators.
This powered equipment is normally mounted either to the trailer tongue or to the rear end of the tractor. Although many users desire to use their tractor-trailer combination or their tractor alone for doing tasks other than those requiring the powered equipment, current powered equipment mountings discourage such use since they all make it difficult and time-consuming for one person to mount and dismount powered equipment to and from the tractor or trailer tongue. In addition, tractor mounted installation adversely affects tractor weight distribution and handling.